MARYSVILLE, MI - Goodrich head coach Gary Barns was well aware of what his team was up against.

He and his four assistants had watched tape of Detroit Douglass, traveled down to Pontiac to watch them play Detroit Country Day in the regional final -- Barns even called coaches he knew in the Detroit area for advice.

"The best thing we could do was zone them up," he said following his team's 39-28 loss to Douglass Tuesday night in a Class B quarterfinal at Marysville High School.

"You don't want to get into a track meet with those guys."

And they didn't. In fact, the game was from from it. Both teams employed a zone defense all game, Goodrich switching between a variation of the 2-3, 1-3-1 and box-and-1 to try and limit Douglass senior forward and Mr. Basketball finalist Darrell Davis (game-high 15 points).

A Carlos Fordham layup pulled the Martians to within four with 2:48 to play, but their inability to score -- or even hold on to the ball -- became a problem.

Douglass shaved several minutes off the clock late in the third quarter and the first five minutes of the fourth dribbling the ball around the perimeter.

Davis to senior Terrell Hales, Hales back to Davis at the top.

"We told our kids to quit shooting," Douglass coach Nkwane Young said after his team went 2-of-9 from the three-point line in the first half.

"They're very disciplined, they play within a system, and I told our team we're not going to let them beat us like that."

Goodrich (20-6) kept it close throughout, taking a 12-9 lead after the first and only trailing 20-18 at half after Douglass attempted more than twice as many shots and controlling the glass.

While Davis scored 11 by half, no other Douglass players had scored more than a basket.

That continued into the third -- Davis even went scoreless -- and even the fourth, the but Goodrich's offense dried up. The Martians scored 10 points all half, including a late 3-pointer from junior guard Jaylin Fordham that didn't matter.

But they had opportunities. Down four during the five-minute scoring drought in the fourth, Goodrich forced three turnovers but wasn't able to translate them into points.

Barnes called his "overload" play designed to get the ball into the paint, a weakness he thought his team could exploit, but they resulted in missed basket or turnover.

"Credit to their defense, they cheat," said Jaylin Fordham (seven points).

And their offensive gameplan?

"They were just trying to waste time, it was a good plan on their part," said senior Grant Smith, who led Goodrich with nine points. We've done it to people before, so I guess this is what happens."

Goodrich, having never advanced to the semifinals, has now lost in the quarterfinals two of the last three years. The team graduates three, including two key components, but returns three starters next year.

Douglass (16-9) advances to its first state semifinal in school history Friday, playing Milan at 7:50 p.m. at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

"Be honest with yourselves," Barns told his team after the game. "When we opened with (Flint) Kearsley and Troy Athens, would you have believed you would have ended up at 20-6 and in the top eight in Class B?"